The disclosure relates to methods for the screening, identification, and/or application of one or more microorganisms of use in imparting one or more beneficial properties to one or more plants.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for deriving a microbial community, enriched for spore-forming microbes that are associated with imparting a beneficial phenotypic trait to a plant, comprising: a) growing a plurality of plants in a growth medium, in the presence of a first microbial community; b) selecting at least one plant from said plurality, following step a), based upon a beneficial phenotypic trait exhibited by the plant relative to other plants of said plurality; c) acquiring a second microbial community from the at least one plant selected in step b); d) repeating steps a) to c) in an iterative manner, wherein the second microbial community acquired in step c) is used as an inoculum in step a) of any successive repeat; and e) acquiring a microbial community enriched for spore-forming microbes that is associated with imparting a beneficial phenotypic trait to a plant, wherein an enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes is applied to the first and/or second microbial community.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first and/or second microbial community to an element or condition that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first and/or second microbial community to a solvent or sterilant that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first and/or second microbial community to an organic solvent that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first and/or second microbial community to an alcohol that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first microbial community of step a) to an alcohol.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the second microbial community of step c) to an alcohol.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first microbial community of step a) to an alcohol and also exposing the second microbial community of step c) to an alcohol.
9. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the alcohol is applied to the growth medium in step a).
10. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the alcohol is applied to the inoculum in step d).
11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes comprises: exposing the first and/or second microbial community to ethanol.
12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure ensures the selective survival of Fungi, Firmicutes, and/or Actinomycetes.
13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the enrichment procedure ensures the selective survival of members of the genus Bacillus.
14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said first microbial community in step a) is obtained by a microbial capture step, comprising: growing a plurality of plants in a growth medium, in the presence of a microbial community; and acquiring said first microbial community from the plurality of plants, or growth medium surrounding the plurality of plants.
15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said first microbial community in step a) is obtained by a microbial capture step, comprising: growing a plurality of plants in a growth medium, in the presence of a microbial community; and acquiring said first microbial community from the plurality of plants, or growth medium surrounding the plurality of plants; and exposing the acquired first microbial community to an element or condition that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said first microbial community in step a) is obtained by a microbial capture step, comprising: growing a plurality of plants in a growth medium, in the presence of a microbial community, wherein an enrichment procedure that ensures the selective survival of spore-forming microbes is applied to the growth medium; and acquiring said first microbial community from the plurality of plants, or growth medium surrounding the plurality of plants.
17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said first microbial community in step a) is obtained by a microbial capture step, comprising: acquiring a first microbial community from a plurality of plants growing in natural soil; and exposing the acquired first microbial community to an element or condition that is selective for the survival of spore-forming microbes and is deleterious to the survival of microbes that do not form spores.
18. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: isolating at least one microbe from the microbial community acquired in step e).
19. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: isolating at least one microbe from the microbial community acquired in step e) and utilizing a molecular technique to characterize the isolated microbe.
20. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of plants are members of the Poaceae family.
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August 14, 2017
January 7, 2020
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